Packet data transmitting method and mobile communication system using the same

ABSTRACT

A packet data transmitting method and mobile communication system using the same enables transmission of common ACK/NACK information from each sector of a base station to a user entity in softer handover. The method includes receiving via at least one of the plurality of sectors a data packet from the mobile terminal, the data packet being correspondingly received for each of the at least one of the plurality of sectors; combining the correspondingly received data packets, to obtain a signal having a highest signal-to-noise ratio; decoding the value obtained by the combining; determining a transmission status of the data packet according to the decoding; and transmitting to the mobile terminal a common ACK/NACK signal including one of a common ACK signal and a common NACK signal according to the determining, the common ACK/NACK signal being transmitted via each of the at least one sector.

This application claims the benefit of Korean Application No.10-2004-0031373 filed on May 4, 2004, which is hereby incorporated byreference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to packet data transmission in a mobilecommunication system.

2. Discussion of the Related Art

Currently, high-speed downlink packet transport in a mobilecommunication system uses hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)transmission schemes, which apply channel coding to ARQ techniques, andadaptive modulation and coding (AMC), which achieves an optimal datarate by varying the modulation order and coding rate according to acurrent channel status. In a system adopting ARQ transmission, erroneouspackets are detected at the receiving side and retransmitted accordingto an ACK/NACK signal fed back to the transmitting side incorrespondence with each packet transfer. The feedback signal is eitheran acknowledgement (ACK) signal for confirming a successful instance ofpacket transmission or a negative acknowledgement (NACK) signal forconfirming an unsuccessful instance of packet transmission. Afterchecking the received data packets and detecting an erroneous packet,the ARQ system discards the erroneous packet, which is then whollyreplaced by a retransmitted packet, but a HARQ system preserves theerroneous packet, which is combined with a correspondingly retransmittedpacket, thereby achieving increased diversity gain and coding gain.While delays in the ARQ system occur when the ACK/NACK signal istransmitted by high layer signaling, the delay in the HARQ system iscaused by the ACK/NACK signal being transmitted by physical layersignaling.

ARQ techniques include the stop-and-wait (SAW) method, in which a newpacket is transmitted only after receiving the previous ACK/NACK signal,the go-back-N (GBN) method, in which packet transmission continues for anumber of packets and a retransmission is performed for N packetspreceding reception of a NACK signal, and the selective repeat (SR)method, in which only erroneous packets are retransmitted. Althoughimplementation of the stop-and-wait method is simple, data transportefficiency suffers since each new packet must await ACK/NACK signalreception. The go-back-N method improves transport channel efficiencybut is more complicated to implement. In the selective repeat method,which is the most complicated since the transmitted packets requirerearrangement on the receiving side to recover their originalsequencing, transport channel efficiency can be maximized.

Meanwhile, HARQ transmission schemes also retransmit a previouslytransmitted packet in the event of an error being present (detected) inthe packet. HARQ systems, whereby a signal-to-noise ratio is increasedto enable improved transport efficiency, include the chase combining(CC) method to achieve higher signal-to-noise ratios through timediversity and the incremental redundancy (IR) method to achieve highersignal-to-noise ratios through coding diversity. Chase combining employsmultiple channels to transmit the packets, such that a channel forretransmission packets in the event of packet error detection differsfrom the channel used for previously transported packets. Eachretransmission of a packet using incremental redundancy, on the otherhand, applies a different (incremented) redundancy. Thus, incrementalredundancy is characterized in that one packet is transported withvarious versions, such that if transmission of a packet of a firstversion fails, the packet is transmitted as a second or third version.For example, for a code rate of ⅓, a transmitted packet x can be sent asthree versions, namely, x₁, x₂, or x₃, but for a code rate of ½, thetransmitted packets include versions x₁ and x₂. Assuming that, at a coderate of ½, a transmission of versions x₁ and x₂ each fails, atransmitter can send another two versions, namely, x₂ and x₃. Hence,from the viewpoint of the receiving side, the ½ code rate is changed toa code rate of ⅓.

HARQ is applicable for packet transmission in an uplink, i.e., a userentity transmitting to a base station. When the user entity communicateswith multiple base stations, as in the case of a soft handover, each ofthe base stations determines the presence or absence of an error in thetransmitted packet and accordingly transmits an ACK/NACK signal in adownlink. Thus, if each of the base stations transmits an ACK/NACKsignal to the user entity, the user entity detects multiple ACK/NACKsignals coming from the various base stations. Under softer handoverconditions, however, where the user entity moves between the sectors ofa single cell, one base station receives multiple transmissions of thesame packet, which is transmitted from the user entity to each of thesectors and is then separately transferred from each sector to the basestation. Hence, if transmission status at the receiving side, i.e., thestate of an ACK/NACK signal to be transmitted by a downlink, isdetermined by decoding the packets transmitted via the respectivesectors and in turn each of the sectors transmits the ACK/NACK signal tothe user entity, the efficiency of ACK/NACK signal transmission islowered.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a packet datatransmitting method and mobile communication system using the same thatsubstantially obviate one or more problems due to limitations anddisadvantages of the related art.

An object of the present invention is to provide a packet datatransmitting method and mobile communication system using the same, bywhich common data transmission success/failure (ACK/NACK) informationcan be transmitted from each sector of a base station to a user entityin softer handover.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a packet datatransmitting method and mobile communication system using the same,which reduces ACK/NACK signaling errors.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a packet datatransmitting method and mobile communication system using the same,which enables improved channel efficiency when using a dedicated channelfor ACK/NACK transmission.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a packet datatransmitting method and mobile communication system using the same,which can increase data transport rates.

Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will beset forth in part in the description which follows and in part willbecome apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art uponexamination of the following or may be learned from practice of theinvention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may berealized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in thewritten description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.

To achieve these objects and other advantages in accordance with thepurpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein,there is provided a method of transmitting packet data in a mobilecommunication system including a base station having a plurality ofsectors and a mobile terminal in softer handover. The method comprisesreceiving via at least one of the plurality of sectors a data packetfrom the mobile terminal, the data packet being correspondingly receivedfor each of the at least one of the plurality of sectors; combining thecorrespondingly received data packets, to obtain a signal having ahighest signal-to-noise ratio; decoding the value obtained by thecombining; determining a transmission status of the data packetaccording to the decoding; and transmitting to the mobile terminal acommon ACK/NACK signal including one of a common ACK signal and a commonNACK signal according to the determining, the common ACK/NACK signalbeing transmitted via each of the at least one sector.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a methodof transmitting a data packet in a mobile communication system includinga base station having a plurality of sectors and a mobile terminal insofter handover. The method comprises receiving, by an uplinktransmission from the mobile terminal, a corresponding data packet viaat least one of the plurality of sectors; maximal-ratio-combining thecorrespondingly received data packets; decoding a resultant of themaximal-ratio-combining; determining a transmission status of the datapacket from the mobile terminal according to the decoding; andtransmitting, by a downlink transmission to the mobile terminal, acommon ACK/NACK signal including one of a common ACK signal and a commonNACK signal according to the determining, the common ACK/NACK signalbeing transmitted via each of the at least one sector.

Preferably, the data packet is transmitted via an enhanced uplinkdedicated channel, and the mobile communication system adopts a hybridautomatic repeat request transmission scheme for the uplinktransmission.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a methodof confirming success or failure of a packet data transmission in amobile terminal. The method comprises receiving a plurality of commonACK/NACK signals including one of a common ACK signal indicating thesuccess of packet data transmission and a common NACK signal indicatingthe failure of packet data transmission, the common ACK/NACK signalsbeing transmitted via radio links from different cells within one activeset; combining the plurality of common ACK/NACK signals received fromthe cells to obtain an ACK/NACK signal having a highest signal-to-noiseratio when the radio links lie within one radio link set; decoding thecombined ACK/NACK signal; and determining the success or failure of thepacket data transmission according to the decoding.

In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a mobilecommunication system comprising a base station having a plurality ofsectors and a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal comprises atransmitter for transmitting a data packet to at least one of theplurality of sectors of the base station; a receiver for receiving fromthe at least one sector a common ACK/NACK signal according to atransmission status of the data packet; a decoder for combining thecommon ACK/NACK signals received from the at least one sector, to obtaina value having a highest signal-to-noise ratio, and for decoding theobtained value; and a controller for determining whether a transmissionof the packet data is successful according to the decoding.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description of the present invention areexemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide furtherexplanation of the invention as claimed.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a furtherunderstanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute apart of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention andtogether with the description serve to explain the principle of theinvention. In the drawings:

FIG. 1 is a diagram of a mobile communication system according to thepresent invention;

FIGS. 2A, 2B, and 2C are each flowcharts of a method for transmittingpacket data in a mobile communication system according to first, second,and third embodiments of the present invention, respectively, whereby acommon ACK/NACK signal is transmitted to a user entity in softerhandover; and

FIG. 3 is a flowchart of a process of receiving at a user entity insofter handover an ACK/NACK signal transmitted according to any one ofthe methods of FIGS. 2A, 2B, or 2C.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of thepresent invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, like reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or similar parts.

An enhanced uplink dedicated channel (E-DCH) has been proposed as achannel for high-speed data transmission from a user entity (UE) to abase station (Node-B).

In a mobile communication system, a UE in soft handover transmits packetdata to a plurality of Node-Bs and receives from each Node-B an ACK/NACKsignal indicating whether the packet data transmission was successful.Accordingly, while in soft handover, the UE receives multiple ACK/NACKsignals, and the received signals may indicate differing ACK/NACKstatuses from one Node-B to another Node-B; namely, one of the Node-Bsmay receive and successfully decode a data packet and transmit to the UEan ACK signal while another Node-B fails in receiving or decoding thecorresponding data packet and thus transmits to the UE a NACK signal. Indoing so, each Node-B of a soft handover receives from the UE thetransmitted packet data, determines based on the received packet datawhether an unacceptable error has occurred in the transmission, and thentransfers or reports to an higher layer (e.g., a radio networkcontroller) information on the determination results for a correspondingdata packet. The higher layer uses a “selection combining” technique todetermine the transmission status of a UE in soft handover. That is, adetermination of successful packet data transmission from a UE in softhandover occurs if at least one of the Node-Bs indicates to the higherlayer a successful transmission of a corresponding data packet from theUE, and a determination of transmission failure occurs if none of theNode-Bs indicates a successful transmission.

Meanwhile, apart from the above determination of the higher layer, eachof the Node-Bs of a soft handover transmits to the UE an ACK/NACK signalaccording to its own packet data reception, that is, its owndetermination of transmission status. The UE side, however, has nocapability under soft handover conditions to combine possibly differingACK/NACK signals from each of the Node-Bs, for example, to ascertain asignal or definitive transmission status during soft handover, andsimply detects each of the ACK/NACK signals.

On the other hand, in the case of transiting between sectors of a givencell (within a single Node-B) by a UE in softer handover, the UEdifferentiates between the sectors and transmits packet dataaccordingly. Therefore, the Node-B of the softer handover decodes thepacket data received per sector and applies a HARQ transmission schemeto transmit to the UE one ACK/NACK signal for each data packettransmitted by the UE.

In an enhanced uplink dedicated channel for uplink high-speed datacommunication employing a HARQ transmission scheme, the presentinvention proposes a method of transmitting one common ACK/NACK signalin the downlink while a UE is in softer handover. The common ACK/NACKsignal, which is transmitted via each of at least one sector (or cell),includes one of a common ACK signal and a common NACK signal accordingto a process for determining transmission status based on a detection ofthe presence or absence of errors in the transmitted packets.

In the present invention, a UE (or mobile terminal) in soft handover mayreceive, during a transmission time interval of an enhanced uplinkdedicated channel, multiple ACK/NACK signals from different cells (orsectors) in the active set (or Node-B). In some cases, such as a softerhandover, the UE knows that some of the transmitted ACK/NACK signals arethe same, since the radio links are part of the same radio link set. Forthese cases, ACK/NACK signals from the same radio link set shall becombined to form one instance (e.g., for one packet) of ACK/NACKinformation, which is then delivered to higher layers.

Referring to FIG. 1, a mobile communication system according to thepresent invention includes a base station 110 having a plurality ofsectors, but assumed herein to have a total of three sectors, and amobile terminal 120. The mobile terminal 120 includes a transmitter 121for transmitting the same packet data to at least one of the pluralityof sectors of the base station 110, a receiver 122 for receiving acommon ACK or NACK signal according to a transmission status of thepacket data from the at least one sector of the base station, a decoder123 for combining the common ACK or NACK signals received from the atleast one sector into a signal (or value) having a highestsignal-to-noise ratio to decode the corresponding value, and acontroller 124 for determining whether transmission of the packet datais successful according to a result of the decoding.

Referring to FIG. 2A, during a softer handover, the base station(Node-B) 110 receives a data packet (S210 a) transmitted to at least onesector and specifically to each of its active sectors from the mobileterminal (UE) 120 via an enhanced uplink dedicated channel (E-DCH) andperforms decoding (S220 a) on a packet having a highest signal-to-noiseratio. That is, rather than separately decoding the packet data receivedvia the respective sectors, the base station 110 performs maximal ratiocombining (MRC) on the correspondingly received packets to obtain fordecoding a packet data value whose signal-to-noise ratio is maximized.Then, according to the decoded resultant, the base station 110determines its reception status and thus the transmission status (S230a) to thereby generate an ACK/NACK signal, including one of atransmission acknowledgement signal (i.e., an ACK signal) or atransmission negative-acknowledgement signal (i.e., a NACK signal), forconfirming the presence or absence of a successful instance oftransmission from the mobile terminal 120. The generated signal, as acommon ACK/NACK signal, is transmitted by physical layer signaling tothe mobile terminal 120 via at least one of the sectors (S240 a), and asshown in FIG. 3, the mobile terminal performs maximal ratio combining onthe common ACK or NACK signals to obtain the value having the highestsignal-to-noise ratio. The base station's use of the physical channel,without reporting to a higher layer, leads to higher data transportrates.

Thus, in the embodiment of FIG. 2A, the ACK/NACK signal is transmittedfrom the base station 110 to the mobile terminal 120 via just one of thesectors of the base station. On the other hand, in the embodiment ofFIG. 2B, regardless of which sectors of the base station 110 receivepackets from the mobile terminal 120 (S210 b), the common ACK/NACKsignal that is generated (S220 b, S230 b) is transmitted by physicallayer signaling via each one of the base station's three sectors (S240b); and in the embodiment of FIG. 2C, according to the sectors of thebase station receiving packets from the mobile terminal (S210 c), thecommon ACK/NACK signal that is generated (S220 c, S230 c) is transmittedby physical layer signaling via only the sector or sectors havingreceived the packet (S240 c).

In the above maximal ratio combining, which is performed in the samemanner for each of the embodiments, once the mobile terminal 120transmits a data packet for reception by the base station 110, its threesectors respectively receive the transmitted (uplink) data packet viadifferent channels, denoted herein as channels h₁, h₂, and h₃, such thatthe thus received packet data, denoted herein as packet data y₁, y₂, andy₃, can be represented by Expressions 1, 2, and 3, respectively, as

y ₁ =h ₁ x+n ₁   Expression 1

y ₂ =h ₂ x+n ₂   Expression 2

y ₃ =h ₃ x+n ₃   Expression 3

where x is the originally transmitted packet data and each of n₁, n₂,and n₃ is a corresponding noise component. Expressions 1, 2, and 3 canbe converted to Expressions 4, 5, and 6, respectively, as

h ₁ ^(*)(y ₁)=*h ₁ *x+h ₁ ^(*)(n ₁)   Expression 4

h ₂ ^(*)(y ₂)−*h ₂ *x+h ₂ ^(*)(n ₂)   Expression 5

h ₃ ^(*)(y ₃)=*h ₃ *x+h ₃ ^(*)(n ₃)   Expression 6

where h₁ ^(*), h₂ ^(*), and h₃ ^(*) are the conjugates h₁, h₂, and h₃,respectively. Combining Expressions 4, 5, and 6, using maximal ratiocombining, obtains one received data packet y according to Expression 7thus

y(*h ₁*² +*h ₂*² +*h ₃*²)x+Cn   Expression 7

where Cn is the combined noise from all sectors. By thus summing thesquares of the absolute values of the packet data received per sector,Expression 7 obtains a maximal ratio combining value of the packet data.Thus, the signal-to-noise ratio of the data packet y has a maximizedvalue.

Referring to FIG. 3, the mobile terminal (UE) 120 in softer handoverreceives and processes the common ACK/NACK signal transmitted from thebase station (Node-B) 110. That is, the mobile terminal 120 receives theACK or NACK signal transmitted from the at least one sector of the basestation 110 (S310). Rather than separately decoding the ACK/NACK signalstransmitted from the respective sectors, the mobile terminal 120preferentially performs the above-described maximal ratio combining onthe received ACK/NACK signals to obtain one ACK or NACK signal having ahighest signal-to-noise ratio and decodes the maximal-ratio-combined ACKor NACK signal (S320). Then, according to the decoded resultant, themobile terminal 120 confirms the transmission status (S330), that is,whether there has been a transmission success or a transmission failurefor the correspondingly transmitted data packet, and subsequentlyexecutes the appropriate transmission procedure accordingly (S340). Inperforming maximal ratio combining, the mobile terminal 120 obtains thevalue having the highest signal-to-noise ratio by combining the commonACK or NACK signals received from the at least one sector and thendecodes the obtained value to determine the transmission status. Here,it is noted that the maximal ratio combining performed by the mobileterminal 120 for combining the correspondingly received common ACK/NACKsignals obtains a value having the highest signal-to-noise ratio and isbasically the same process as that performed by the base station 110 forcombining the variously received data packets.

According to the present invention as described above, for a softerhandover condition of a mobile terminal, the sectors of a base stationeach transmit to the mobile terminal a common ACK/NACK signal confirmingthe success or failure of a corresponding transmission, and the mobileterminal combines the respectively received ACK/NACK signals to obtainthe value having the highest signal-to-noise ratio and decodes theobtained value to confirm transmission status, thereby reducing ACK/NACKsignaling errors. Since the ACK/NACK signal can, as necessary, betransmitted to a mobile terminal in softer handover from a single sectorof the base station, the present invention also enables improved channelefficiency when using a dedicated channel for ACK/NACK transmission. Inaddition, data transport rates can be increased due to the basesstation's direct use of a physical channel for transmitting ACK/NACKsignals to the mobile terminal, thereby eliminating the need to reportto a higher layer, such as a radio network controller.

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that variousmodifications and variations can be made in the present invention. Thus,it is intended that the present invention covers such modifications andvariations provided they come within the scope of the appended claimsand their equivalents.

1-22. (canceled)
 23. A method for processing hybrid automatic repeatrequest (HARQ) feedback information in a mobile terminal of a mobilecommunication system, the method comprising: a mobile terminalcommunicating with one base station via two or more sectors associatedwith the one base station; transmitting an enhanced dedicated channel(E-DCH) signal from the mobile terminal to the one base station throughthe two or more sectors; receiving acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment(ACK/NACK) signals in the mobile terminal through the two or moresectors by applying a HARQ transmission scheme, wherein the status ofthe ACK/NACK signals is common and based on a decoding of thetransmitted E-DCH signal at the one base station; and combining thereceived ACK/NACK signals into one combined ACK/NACK information in themobile terminal when the mobile terminal knows that the mobile terminalis communicating with the one base station through the two or moresectors.
 24. A method of processing hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) feedback information at a base station of a mobile communicationsystem, the method comprising: a base station communicating with amobile station via two or more sectors associated with the base station;receiving, at the base station through the two or more sectors, anenhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signal from the mobile station;decoding the received E-DCH signal in the base station; and transmittingacknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) signals from the basestation to the mobile station through the two or more sectors byapplying a HARQ transmission scheme, wherein the status of the ACK/NACKsignals is common and based on the decoding of the received E-DCH signalat the base station.
 25. A mobile station operated in a mobilecommunication system, the mobile station comprising: a transmitterconfigured to transmit an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signal toone base station through two or more sectors associated with the onebase station by applying a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ)transmission scheme; a receiver configured to receiveacknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) signals through the two ormore sectors of the one base station by applying the HARQ transmissionscheme, wherein the status of the received ACK/NACK signals is commonand based on a decoding of the transmitted E-DCH signal at the one basestation; and a controller configured to combine the ACK/NACK signalsinto one combined ACK/NACK information when the mobile station knowsthat the mobile station is communicating with the one base stationthrough the two or more sectors.
 26. A base station operated in a mobilecommunication system having a plurality of sectors associated to thebase station, the base station comprising: a receiver adapted to receivethrough two or more sectors an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signalfrom a mobile terminal associated to the base station; a decoderconfigured to decode the received E-DCH signal; and a transmitterconfigured to transmit acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK)signals to the mobile station via the two or more sectors by applying ahybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission scheme, wherein thestatus of the ACK/NACK signals is common and based on the decoding ofthe received E-DCH signal.
 27. A method for processing hybrid automaticrepeat request (HARQ) feedback information in a mobile terminal of amobile communication system, the method comprising: a mobile terminalcommunicating with one base station via two or more sectors associatedwith the one base station; transmitting an enhanced dedicated channel(E-DCH) signal to the one base station through the two or more sectors;receiving acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) signals throughthe two or more sectors by applying a HARQ transmission scheme and byusing physical layer signaling, wherein the status of each of theACK/NACK signals is common and based on a decoding of the transmittedE-DCH signal at the one base station; and combining the receivedACK/NACK signals into one combined ACK/NACK information when the mobileterminal knows that the mobile terminal is communicating with the onebase station through the two or more sectors.
 28. A method of processinghybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback information at a basestation of a mobile communication system, the method comprising: a basestation communicating with a mobile station via two or more sectorsassociated with the base station; receiving at the base station throughthe two or more sectors, an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signalfrom the mobile station; decoding the received E-DCH signal in the basestation; and transmitting acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK)signals from the base station to the mobile station via the two or moresectors by applying a HARQ transmission scheme and by using physicallayer signaling, wherein the status of the ACK/NACK signals is commonand based on the decoding of the received E-DCH signal at the basestation.
 29. A mobile station operated in a mobile communication system,the mobile station comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit anenhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signal to one base station throughtwo or more sectors associated with the one base station by applying ahybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission scheme; a receiverconfigured to receive acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK)signals through the two or more sectors of the one base station byapplying the HARQ transmission scheme and by using physical layersignaling, wherein the status of the received ACK/NACK signals is commonand based on a decoding of the transmitted E-DCH signal at the one basestation; and a controller configured to combine the ACK/NACK signalsinto one combined ACK/NACK information when the mobile station knowsthat the mobile station is communicating with the one base stationthrough the two or more sectors.
 30. A base station operated in a mobilecommunication system having a plurality of sectors associated to thebase station, the base station comprising: a receiver configured toreceive through two or more sectors an enhanced dedicated channel(E-DCH) signal from a mobile terminal associated to the base station; adecoder configured to decode the received E-DCH signal; and atransmitter configured to transmit an acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment(ACK/NACK) signal to the mobile station via the two or more sectors byapplying a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission schemeand by using physical layer signaling, wherein the status of theACK/NACK signal is common and based on the decoding of the receivedE-DCH signal.
 31. A method of processing hybrid automatic repeat request(HARQ) feedback information at a base station of a mobile communicationsystem, the method comprising: a base station communicating with amobile terminal via two or more sectors associated with the basestation; receiving at the base station through the two or more sectors,an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signal from the mobile terminal;combining the E-DCH signal received through the two or more sectors atthe one base station; decoding the combined signal; and transmittingacknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) signals from the basestation to the mobile station via the two or more sectors by applying aHARQ transmission scheme and by using physical layer signaling, whereinthe status of the ACK/NACK signals is common and based on the decodingof the combined signal at the base station.
 32. A base station operatedin a mobile communication system having a plurality of sectorsassociated to the base station, the base station comprising: a receiverconfigured to receive through two or more sectors, an enhanced dedicatedchannel (E-DCH) signal from a mobile terminal associated to the basestation; a controller configured to combine the received E-DCH signal; adecoder configured to decode the combined signal; and a transmitterconfigured to transmit acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK)signals to the mobile terminal via the two or more sectors by applying ahybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission scheme and by usingphysical layer signaling, wherein the status of the ACK/NACK signals iscommon and based on the decoding of the combined signal.
 33. A methodfor processing hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedbackinformation in a mobile terminal of a mobile communication system, themethod comprising: a mobile terminal communicating with one base stationvia two or more sectors associated with the one base station;transmitting an enhanced dedicated channel (E-DCH) signal to the basestation through the two or more sectors; receivingacknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK) signals through the two ormore sectors by applying a HARQ transmission scheme and by usingphysical layer signaling, wherein the status of the ACK/NACK signals iscommon and based on a decoding of the transmitted E-DCH signal at theone base station; combining the ACK/NACK signals into one combinedACK/NACK information when the mobile terminal knows that the mobileterminal is communicating with the one base station through the two ormore sectors; and decoding the one combined ACK/NACK information.
 34. Amobile station operated in a mobile communication system, the mobilestation comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit an enhanceddedicated channel (E-DCH) signal to one base station through two or moresectors associated with the one base station by applying a hybridautomatic repeat request (HARQ) transmission scheme; a receiverconfigured to receive acknowledgment/non-acknowledgment (ACK/NACK)signals through the two or more sectors of the one base station byapplying the HARQ transmission scheme and by using physical layersignaling, wherein the status of the received ACK/NACK signals is commonand based on a decoding of the transmitted E-DCH signal at the one basestation; a controller configured to combine the ACK/NACK signals intoone combined ACK/NACK information when the mobile station knows that themobile station is communicating with the one base station through thetwo or more sectors; and a decoder configured to decode the one combinedACK/NACK information.